Supreme Court: Päivi Räsänen and her Internet publisher convicted of agitation against a population group

The District Court and the Court of Appeal had dismissed all charges.

Counts 1 and 2 in the charge related to a text with the title “Male and Female He Created Them – Homosexual Relationships Challenge the Christian Concept of Humanity”, authored by Räsänen and later published on the Internet by the Manager of the Luther Foundation Finland. The charge did not relate to the original print publication of the text. According to the charge, the text was derogatory towards homosexuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.

In the text, Räsänen had inter alia noted that homosexuality is an aberration of psychosexual development and described homosexuality as sexual deviation. The Supreme Court held that Räsänen’s statements were in this way derogatory towards homosexuals as a group on the basis of their sexual orientation. However, certain other passages referred to in the charge were not held to be derogatory.

According to the Supreme Court, the conduct of Räsänen and the Manager of the Luther Foundation Finland met the constituent elements of the criminal offence of agitation against a population group. Conviction of the defendants of this offence was not contrary to the principles of freedom of expression and freedom of religion as enshrined in the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Count 3 of the charge related to a social media post by Räsänen in response to an announcement that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland would sponsor Helsinki Pride 2019. According to the charge, Räsänen had stated in her post that homosexuality was shameful and sinful, and that her conduct had thus been derogatory towards homosexuals as a group on the basis of their sexual orientation.

The Supreme Court held that the social media post by Räsänen was to be considered as a whole, comprised of the text of her message and of the Bible passage attached to it. In her social media criticism of the Church sponsoring the Pride event, Räsänen had justified her opinion by means of a Bible passage that was negative about sexual acts between persons of the same sex and by the expressions “shame” and “sin” which reflected the contents of the passage. The Supreme Court held that, in context, the conduct by Räsänen had not been derogatory towards homosexuals as referred to in the constituent elements of the agitation offence. The charge was dismissed for this part.

The Supreme Court convicted both Räsänen and the Manager of the Luther Foundation Finland of agitation against a population group, committed from 4 November 2019 to 24 January 2022, and ordered each to pay 20 unit fines. In addition, the Supreme Court imposed a corporate fine of EUR 5,000 on the Luther Foundation Finland. The defendants were also ordered to take down the unlawful passages in the Internet publication referred to in counts 1 and 2.

More information: Communications Unit, kko.viestinta(at)oikeus.fi, tel. +358 2956 40052.

Ruling KKO:2026:27 (in Finnish)